Santorum sits on the far right. I mean the very far right. Some, like Meghan Daum of the LA Times, consider Rick Santorum to be an extremist. In her editorial, Santorum: The Personal Isn't Always Political, Daum addresses some issues that have been surrounding him lately, one being his take on gay marriage. He makes it clear that a woman and a man should be the dominate figures in a child's life. He also thinks that gay marriage should be between two men because a child needs a father and without one, they are apparently "lost". "He found that even fathers in jail who had abandoned their kids were still better than no father at all to have in their children's lives." Daum writes. Daum not only addresses the issues surrounding Santorum but also how he has done a poor job of keeping his private life out of the public light. Daum does not actually say it, but indicates that this will be Santorum's downfall if he does not keep it in check. "Santorum's opponents should respect the difference between private life and public policy for this obvious reason: He himself does not."
California is not known for being heavily religous but when faced with Santorum's views, they obviously take some offense to them. Santorum believes that sex should only be used for reproductive reasons and not for pleasure. The streets of LA are not lined with churches, but with places that use sex for pleasure, so LA is not completely on board with this concept. In Karen Santorum's book, she writes about the loss of her son in 1996. Born at 20 weeks, he died two hours later and the Santorum's brought him home to show their children. Apparently, the Santorum's slept with him that night too, with him in between them. To most, this is bizarre and shocking but to the Santorum's it's a way of grieving. So who are we to judge?
The reason why we judge is because Santorum puts his personal business out there. To tell the public about something so personal, like the death of a child, opens the Santorum's up to ridicule because all of us grieve differently. What one person does to heal is not what someone else would do and we feel the need to share our opinions about it. As indicated in Daum's editorial, this could be the death of Santorum's campaign. He has not realized that private matters and public matters are two separate things. While his opponents have realized this, he is still struggling to grasp this concept and as he continues to push his extreme religious views and private burdens onto the public, the farther he will drop in the polls.
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